Thursday, October 29, 2015

Trick or Treat!?!

I'm told "the debate contained no obvious moments that would change the narrative of the campaign. Many observers were watching to see if Bush would have a performance strong enough to reverse his slide in the polls. Rubio, with a crisp and confident delivery, appeared to solidify his standing as a rising mainstream alternative to Trump and Carson."

They own the hou$e.And look who came to the door:
"Jeb Bush lags rivals in early-state spending" by Matt Viser Globe Staff October 27, 2015Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!!!!!(Blog editor slams door shut; no candy for you!)

WASHINGTON — Jeb Bush is being outspent in the crucial early presidential caucus and primary states, while Donald Trump has quietly been building a competitive, ground-level campaign operation.I was told he was getting by on media exposure, but that was over a week ago. I'm sure you've forgotten.

With the first Iowa caucus votes less than 100 days away, the Globe examined what Republican campaigns are doing to build the on-the-ground networks required to get supporters to the polls during the cold of winter. The review analyzed state-by-state spending since each of the candidates jumped into the race.

It shows that Bush has spent less money in the first four states — Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada — than some of his top Republican rivals, according to a Globe analysis of campaign data submitted to the Federal Election Commission.

Bush’s campaign says the FEC disclosures distort the true picture, because staffers hard at work in New Hampshire — where he is now focusing — are paid through a common Florida address, and their help on the campaign is not reflected in state-by-state expenditures. Still, even with those salaries factored in, Bush does not have the sort of staffing advantage heading into the heat of the campaign that he once boasted he could build.

Meanwhile, Trump has spent nearly $1 million in the early states, eclipsing all of his rivals, particularly in New Hampshire, where he just opened two more campaign offices.And if he wins them, or is awarded them by the vote-counters, then he gets all the delegates. It's not an apportionment anymore because of the trouble it gave Mitt.

The weak spending by much of the GOP field has some Republicans concerned that the field is not doing the kind of work needed to compete with the Democrats.

“They’re all lousy. All the Republicans put together don’t have as good of an organization as Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders,” said Fergus Cullen, the former chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party.Related: "Clinton’s organizing is a course correction from 2008, when she was out-hustled by Obama."

More on that side below.

“They’re all miles behind where Mitt Romney was four years ago,” he added. “I mean, Obama and Hillary eight years ago had a dozen field offices, 60 staffers, 60 summer interns — just a real army. You see Republican campaigns now put out press releases saying they added their 10th staffer last week.”

Gee, they sure are missing that guy. What a leader! Maybe if they beg him during a fractured convention?

The state-by-state spending figures analyzed by the Globe typically includes staff, rent on campaign headquarters, fees for renting out large ballrooms, and food for hungry campaign volunteers. It does not include money spent on television ads, which increasingly will rise in prominence. The figures also do not include spending by associated super PACs; the support provided to candidates by those committees, which can raise and spend unlimited amounts, is not required to be disclosed until December.Reading this stuff you would think money matters more than votes and voters, and I suppose it does in the bubble of AmeriKan politics and its ma$$ media.

The numbers show that Trump is not relying just on his flashy media appearances and his surprising durability atop GOP polls. There is more to his campaign than his attention-grabbing statements, late-night tweets, and debate-stage braggadocio.Flies in face of what was reported and noted earlier!

“The Trump campaign is probably the best campaign in Iowa in terms of getting people to understand what caucusing is, what it requires, and how to do it,” said Craig Robinson, a former political director of the Iowa Republican Party who now runs the influential website the Iowa Republican. “They’ve been talking caucus, caucus, caucus for months now.”

They pass out cards to explain the process. They give speeches on how simple it is. They show up in unexpected places wearing Trump gear. They take names and phone numbers, and follow up.Then Trump should, in a fair vote, win Iowa.

“There’s all these new people tuned into a Republican primary because of Trump,” Robinson said. “If they can get them to actually engage in the caucus — or in the primary in New Hampshire — then they’ve got something. They’ve got something that could be very meaningful and difficult for his opponents to match.”

Bush has struggled to resonate among a more conservative group of voters.Or any other, for that matter.

“It’s a candidate issue. There’s not a lot of buzz and focus. He comes here but there’s not a lot of focus on what it takes to win Iowa,” Robinson said. “It’s really weird. The only time I hear of Bush is when someone is saying unpleasant things. Very rarely does someone volunteer praise for the campaign.”I'm shocked, shocked I tell you.

But New Hampshire has increasingly become a more central focus for Bush. He has faced a rough stretch nationally, with slowed fund-raising, a drop in the polls, and concern spreading among donors and members of his famous political family.The rigging is already in place!

Also see: The beginning of the end for JebDon't count him out yet; I foresee a narrative where he finishes fourth everywhere but ends up with the nomination. How? Volume!

Bush met with top donors Monday in Houston at a fund-raising retreat featuring his father and brother, both former presidents....That's about all you will see about what was said.

ATKINSON, N.H. — Donald Trump told a packed room Monday that the United States should not use its resources to liberate woman from local requirements to wear burkas.

“They want to. What the hell are we getting involved for?” he asked the large crowd at the Atkinson Resort & Country Club.Oh, now, you see, this is where we are going to have issues. The problem is these women are responsible for all the ills in the world (not the greedy bankers funding both sides of every war or the bought-off politicians enabling them). That is why the AmeriKan war machine must smash and obliterate their villages and murder their menfolk and children over lies. It's called liberation.

He added that it’s easier for women when they do wear burkas, saying, “You don’t have to put on make-up. . . . Wouldn’t that be easier?”

“I tell ya, if I was a woman,” he said, waving his hand over his face to signal a burka. “I’m ready darling, let’s go.”I'm told there could be an Israeli-Saudi Arabia-Islamic Emirate-U.S.-sponsored terrorist beneath those robes so unacceptable, unacceptable.Even if it's a good idea, laying off this minuscule percentage of women, a mountain out of a molehill issue, Trump will cause enough insult to discredit.

The Republican front-runner in New Hampshire made the comments at a 45-minute rally that preceded his appearance on NBC’s “Today” show, which included a question-and-answer session.

Trump said he would back up tough talk with a beefed-up military. “We’re going to build the strongest military we’ve ever had in this country,” he said.More money thrown down the war machine rathole in the quest for EUSraeli Empire.

Trump reserved his sharpest criticism for some journalists. He said his campaign has taught him “how brilliant the public is and how bad the press is.”He won't lose any points there. No one likes a liar.

Less than a half-hour later, he sat face to face with “Today” host Matt Lauer.

Karoline Leavitt, a freshman at nearby Saint Anselm College, said Trump’s comments about not interfering in countries where women wear burkas made sense, particularly as the United States tries to promote democracy abroad.

HOUSTON — Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz is one of several Republican presidential candidates with Texas ties, but he has dominated the state’s generous donor class. In the first nine months of the year, Cruz raised more than three times as much in the state as did Jeb Bush, according to an Associated Press analysis of donations.

Bush, a former Florida governor, spent much of his youth in Texas, and his father and brother, both former presidents, still call the state home.

Cruz called his own fund-raising ‘‘astonishing’’ and said it’s ‘‘positively nuts’’ that he’s in some ways in a stronger financial position than Bush in a delegate-rich state where Republican primary voters go to the polls March 1.

Cruz has quietly consolidated the support of many former donors to former governor Rick Perry and another dropout, Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin.

No other candidate comes close to Carson and Trump. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida received 8 percent while former governor Jeb Bush of Florida and Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard chief executive, are each the choice of 7 percent of Republican primary voters. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, former governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, and Governor John R. Kasich of Ohio were each at 4 percent support in the survey. The new survey shows that the vast majority of Republicans have not firmly made up their minds.

As for some others:

"Rand Paul’s presidential campaign was doing a lousy job [and] the run-up to Wednesday’s Republican debate has been brutal for Paul and no fun for the other half-dozen candidates mired in low single digits in the polls. Yet none of these candidates appear to be looking at the exits. Every candidate who barely qualified for Wednesday’s debate has an argument for staying in the race. Host CNBC required that candidates average at least 3 percent in selected polls. The race is an October apple tree ready to drop its fruit. Jeb Bush has grown weaker [and] Rick Santorum [has been] exiled, [while] Donald Trump and Ben Carson [are] the celebrity candidates who have dominated the race....I'm told Rand is fading fast according to last night's sparring.

About a dozen protesters intended to pitch tents and camp out across from the State House in Trenton on Tuesday to dramatize their plight, but they were barred by State Police. Joe Karcz said of Christie, ‘‘He’s running around the country raising money. He doesn’t care about us; we’re in his rearview mirror.’’

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